Regulating Occupational Health and Safety in a Changing Labour Market

The traditional boundaries of labour law are becoming outmoded in a modern world in which active labour market participants vastly outnumber “employees”, and the world of work extends way beyond the workplace gate. There is convergence with labour market regulation. The contract of employment remains central but is no longer the sole object of study.

Informal Sectors and New Industries: The Complexities of Regulating Occupational Health and Safety in Developing Countries

Focusing on paid work that blurs traditional legal boundaries and the challenge this poses to traditional forms of labour regulation, this collection of original case studies illustrates the wide range of different forms of regulation designed to provide decent work. The original case studies cover a diversity of workers from across developed and developing countries, the formal and informal economies and public and private work spaces. Each deals with the failings of traditional labour law, and several explore the capacity of different forms of regulatory techniques, such as commercial law, corporate codes of conduct, or supply chain regulation, to protect workers.

Decriminalization of Health and Safety at Work in Australia

ABOUT THE BOOK As the title Safety or Profit? suggests, health and safety at work needs to be understood in the context of the wider political economy. This book brings together contributions informed by this view from internationally recognized scholars. It reviews the governance of health and safety at work, with special reference to Australia, Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Three main aspects are discussed. The restructuring of the labor market: this is considered with respect to precarious work and to gender issues and their implications for the health and safety of workers. The neoliberal agenda: this is examined with respect to the diminished power of organized labor, decriminalization, and new governance theory, including an examination of how well the health-and-safety-at-work regimes put in place in many industrial societies about forty years ago have fared and how distinctive the recent emphasis on self-regulation in several countries really is. The role of evidence: there is a dearth of evidence-based policy. The book examines how policy on health and safety at work is formulated at both company and state levels. Cases considered include the scant regard paid to evidence by an official inquiry into future strategy in Canada; the lack of evidence-based policy and the reluctance to observe the precautionary principle with respect to work-related cancer in the United Kingdom; and the failure to learn from past mistakes in the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Intended Audience: Researchers; policymakers, trade union representatives, and officials interested in OHS; postgraduate students of OHS; OHS professionals; regulatory and socio-legal scholars.

The relationship between 'reasonably practicable'and risk management regulation

This paper examines two concepts which are central to contemporary standard setting in occupational health and safety (OHS) regulation, and explores the differences and similarities between these concepts – the notion of ‘reasonably practicable’ which qualifies the ‘general duties’ and some other provisions in the Australian OHS standards, and the risk management requirements typically found in OHS regulations and approved codes of practice (advisory standards in Queensland).

Regulating supply chains to improve health and safety

The fragmentation of previously integrated systems of production and service delivery has been an important feature of organisational restructuring over the last three decades. This article highlights the adverse implications of this development for the health and safety of workers, examines the extent to which current British health and safety law provides an adequate framework for addressing these outcomes and explores whether its capacity to do so could be enhanced through the introduction of new statutory provisions on the regulation of supply chains. It concludes that, in terms of both structure and operation, the present framework of law is problematic. It further argues that recent international initiatives show that it is feasible to develop such statutory provisions and that existing evidence suggests that provisions of this type could usefully be introduced in respect of a number of areas of activity where the implications of the externalisation of production and service delivery seem particularly problematic.

Safety, courts and crime: occupational safety and health prosecutions in the Magistrates' courts

This paper reports on an empirically based study of occupational safety and health prosecutions in the Magistrates' courts in the State of Victoria, Australia. It examines the way in which the courts construct occupational safety and health issues during prosecutions against alleged offenders, and then theorises the role of the criminal law in health and safety regulation. The paper argues that courts, inspectors, prosecutors and defence counsel are involved in filtering or reshaping occupational safety and health issues during the prosecution process, both pre-trial and in court. An analysis of the pattern of investigation of health and safety offences shows that they are constructed by focusing on 'events', in most cases incidents resulting in injury or death. This 'event focus' ensures that the attention of the parties is drawn to the details of the incident and away from the broader context of the event. This broader context includes the way in which work is organised at the workplace and the quality of occupational safety and health management (the micro context), and the pressures within capitalist production systems for occupational safety and health to be subordinated to production imperatives (the macro context). In particular, during the court-based sentencing process, defence counsel is able to adopt a range of 'isolation' techniques that isolate the incident from its micro and macro contexts, thereby individualising and decontextualising the incident. The paper concludes that the legal system plays a key role in decontextualising and individualising health and safety issues, and that this process is part of the 'architecture' of the legal system, and a direct consequence of the 'form of law'.

Dismantling worker categories: the primary duty of care, and worker consultation, participation and representation, in the model Work Health and Safety Bill 2009

Late in 2009, the Australian Workplace Relations Ministers' Council endorsed the model Work Health and Safety Bill 2009, which is to be adopted by all Australian governments (federal, state and territory) from 01 January 2012. This paper describes and analyses two key sets of provisions in this model legislation. The first establishes a 'primary' duty of care imposed not on 'employers' but on persons conducting a business or undertaking, and owed to all kinds of workers engaged, directed or influenced by the person conducting the business or undertaking. The second encompasses broad duties on all persons conducting a business or undertaking to consult with workers who carry out work for the business or undertaking and who are directly affected by a work health and safety issue, and to facilitate the election of health and safety representatives representing all workers who carry out work for the business or undertaking. These provisions arguably make a significant contribution to solving a problem faced by occupational safety and health regulators around the world – modifying regulation to accommodate all forms of precarious work.

Work health and safety and the criminal law in Australia

This paper analyses recent Australian debates about the use of the criminal law in work health and safety regulation. It argues that these debates have to be seen in the context of the historical development of work health and safety regulation in the United Kingdom and Australia. The first part of the paper shows that, since the late 19th century, contraventions against the Australian work health and safety statutes have not been regarded as 'really criminal', and have largely been addressed by informal measures and, since the 1980s, by administrative sanctions. When prosecutions have taken place, work health and safety issues have been individualised and decontextualised, so that defendants have been able to reduce their culpability in the eyes of the court. Significant legal barriers have undermined the use of the crime of gross negligence manslaughter against corporations and individuals. The second part of the paper analyses recent debates about restructuring gross negligence manslaughter and bolstering the 'criminality' of offences under the work health and safety statutes. It argues that the latter debate has been constrained by the historical forces examined in the first part of the paper, and that the current position, embodied in the recently harmonised Work Health and Safety Acts, favours attempting to recriminalise the work health and safety legislation. The debate about reforming gross negligence manslaughter has stalled.

Development of a new regulatory model for occupational health and safety in the New South Wales coal industry: an issues paper for the New South Wales Department of Mineral Resources

This paper addresses the regulatory issues arising in developing a new regulatory model for the New South Wales Coal Industry. As such, it identifies the relevant literature on this subject, the options available for reform, and the experience of Australian and key international bodies responsible for the development of regulatory standards in this area. In particular it: Identifies the main shortcomings in the existing regulatory approach; Identifies the potential roles/main strengths and weaknesses of different types of standards (eg specification, performance, process and systems-based rules) and potential “best practice’ combinations of standards; Examines the appropriateness of the current regulatory regime whereby the general OHS legislation (including the general duty provisions) applies to mining in addition to the large body of regulation which is specific to mining; Identifies the importance of, and possible means of addressing, issues of worker participation within the coal mining industry; Draws on the literature on what motivates companies and individuals for the purpose of recommending key provisions for inclusion in new legislation to provide appropriate personal and organisational incentives; Draws on the literature on major hazards facilities to suggest the appropriate roles for OHS management systems and safety reports or comparable approaches (eg mine safety management plans); Draws on the United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA) experience of coal mine safety and its regulation for comparative purposes, and for insights as to what sort of regulation most effectively reduces work related injury and disease in coal mining; Examines the relevant roles of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions; Examines the extent to which different regulatory regimes would be appropriate to open cut and underground coal mining; and Examines options for reform. This paper is focussed specifically on the issues identified above.

Experiences in becoming a paramedic : a qualitative study examining the professional socialisation of university qualified paramedics

This thesis used qualitative methods to investigate the professional socialisation of university educated paramedics from Australia and the United Kingdom. The study tested existing professional socialisation theories, taken from other health disciplines, against the paramedical context and developed of a specific model depicting the professional socialisation of university educated paramedics.

Regulation, compliance and the Australian forensic accounting profession

Legacies of the Global Financial Crisis and major domestic corporate collapses – such as HIH Insurance Pty Ltd and One.Tel Ltd (telecommunications) – have significantly changed Australia‟s financial regulatory landscape. Legal requirements for auditors have attracted particular attention as have practice standards more broadly around disclosure and conflict of interest. Conversely, although successful detection and prosecution of breaches may rest in significant part on forensic accounting activities, Australia‟s practitioners in this field have no minimum training or qualifications standards other than the baseline requirements mandated by the country‟s three professional accounting bodies. For those unaffiliated with these organizations, no professional oversight exists. In Australia, growth in the forensic accounting industry has been in direct response to public demand for expertise in a broad range of fraud, forensic and business analytics areas in order to improve the corporate governance practices of Australian organizations. During the 1990s, Australian forensic accounting firms expanded and diversified into a number of different areas going well beyond just the examination of financial documents and involvement in financial litigation disputes. “Big 4” accounting firms such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Deloitte and Ernst and Young formed independent forensic accounting or forensic services units; a number of mid-tier and „boutique‟ forensic accounting firms similarly expanded into forensic investigative, analytical and advisory services. By 2008, 800 forensic accountants were registered with the country‟s largest specialist forensic accounting group, the Forensic Accounting Special Interest Group (FASIG) of the ICAA1. Currently, obtaining more precise figures on numbers of forensic accounting practitioners is problematic: professional accounting bodies either do not keep a register or have ceased registering their forensic accounting members; lack of formal recognition, admission or certification processes complicate identification of candidates; and diversity of the skills sets the industry requires has meant the influx of non-accounting based specialists.

GABAB receptors expressed in human aortic endothelial cells mediate intracellular calcium concentration regulation and endothelial nitric oxide synthase translocation

GABAB receptors regulate the intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) in a number of cells (e.g., retina, airway epithelium and smooth muscle), but whether they are expressed in vascular endothelial cells and similarly regulate the [Ca2+]i is not known. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of GABAB receptors, a subclass of receptors to the inhibitory neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), in cultured human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs), and to explore if altering receptor activation modified [Ca2+]i and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) translocation. Real-time PCR, western blots and immunofluorescence were used to determine the expression of GABAB1 and GABAB2 in cultured HAECs. The effects of GABAB receptors on [Ca2+]i in cultured HAECs were demonstrated using fluo-3. The influence of GABAB receptors on eNOS translocation was assessed by immunocytochemistry. Both GABAB1 and GABAB2 mRNA and protein were expressed in cultured HAECs, and the GABAB1 and GABAB2 proteins were colocated in the cell membrane and cytoplasm. One hundred μM baclofen caused a transient increase of [Ca2+]i and eNOS translocation in cultured HAECs, and the effects were attenuated by pretreatment with the selective GABAB receptor antagonists CGP46381 and CGP55845. GABAB receptors are expressed in HAECs and regulate the [Ca2+]i and eNOS translocation. Cultures of HAECs may be a useful in vitro model for the study of GABAB receptors and vascular biology.

Book review - Richard Goldberg, Medicinal Product Liability and Regulation (Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2013) 214pp

In December 2013, settlement was reached between approximately 100 Australian and New Zealand Thalidomide victims and the company which had acted as the Australian distributor of the infamous drug, thus putting to rest the possibility of litigation. Around the same time, Thalidomide victims in the United Kingdom (UK) launched a similar bid for compensation against the manufacturer and distributor. It is clear that despite a lengthy amount of time having passed ever since the thalidomide disaster commenced in 1962, the controversy over compensation continues. Indeed, the author of Medicinal Product Liability and Regulation (published before the announcement of the British legal claim), Professor Goldberg, notes that claims for resulting birth defects continue to emerge right into the present day. His prescient insight into the contemporary relevance of compensation for pharmaceutical injuries thus makes Medicinal Product Liability and Regulation a very relevant addition to the small body of scholarship that is available on this rather specific and complex issue.

Paternal postnatal depressive symptoms, infant sleeping and feeding behaviors, and rigid parental regulation : a correlational study

Paternal postnatal depression (PND) is now recognized as a serious and prevalent problem, associated with poorer well-being and functioning of all family members. Aspects of infant temperament, sleeping and feeding perceived by parents as problematic are associated with maternal PND, however, less is known about paternal PND. This study investigated depressive symptoms (Edinburgh postnatal depression scale (EPDS)) in 219 fathers of infants aged from 1 to 24 weeks (median 7.0 weeks). Infant predictor variables were sleeping problems, feeding problems and both mother and father reported temperament. Control variables were partner’s support, other support and life events. Rigidity of parenting beliefs regarding infant regulation was also measured as a potential moderating factor. Infant feeding difficulties were associated with paternal depressive symptoms, subsuming the variance associated with both sleep problems and temperament. This relationship was not moderated by regulation beliefs. It was concluded that infant feeding is important to fathers. Fathers of infants with feeding difficulties may not be able to fulfill their idealized construction of involved fatherhood. Role incongruence may have an etiological role in paternal PND.